AN OXFORD-bound student died after falling off a bridge and drowning in a stream.

Sam Thomas, 17, had been celebrating exam results with friends on the night of the tragedy.

The Coleg Llandrillo student had been invited to stay at a friend’s house but decided to get the last bus home to Rhyl.

He was drunk and had been sick.

He asked to get off the bus at Dingle Bridge, Colwyn Bay and walked over to the edge as if to be sick.

He then overbalanced and fell.

He plunged 10 to 15ft onto a slope covered in undergrowth, fracturing his left elbow. He then slid down the slope into a shallow stream.

Two passers by found his body the following day.

North Wales Central Coroner John Hughes heard at a Llandudno inquest that Sam, of Llys Tegid, Rhyl, had been drinking with friends at the Wetherspoons pub in Llandudno.

Arriva bus driver Kevin Wilson told how Sam got onto his 10.49pm Rhyl-bound service at the Llandudno Palladium stop on Friday May 22.

He said when the bus reached Dingle Hill in Colwyn Bay Sam got up from his seat, approached the driver’s cab and vomited into his hands. Sam got off.

Passenger Tricia Fitzmorris Taylor said: “He stood facing the bridge, with his arms on it either side of him, as if he was going to be sick over the wall.” The bus then drove on.

By Saturday morning, parents Melvyn and Jane feared for his safety.

His dad, a PE teacher told the hearing friends did not know his whereabouts.

Mr Thomas praised his “awesome son”, who excelled at academic work and sport – he had been offered a conditional place at Pembroke College, Oxford, to study history and politics.

Passer by Andrew Ferris, an angler, spotted two legs in the stream and could see blue jeans and white pumps.

He called over another man , Sean Powell, who told the inquest: “He (Mr Ferris) said, ‘Am I imagining things or can you see a pair of legs down there?’”

The two men climbed down and found Sam face down in water.

Professor Dr Richard Shepherd, a Home Office pathologist found that Sam died from drowning and “acute alcohol intoxication”. The level of alcohol in his body was equivalent to two and half times the drink driving limit.

The Coroner recorded an accidental death verdict. He said: “It’s a most appalling state of affairs in that the stream is shallow and innocuous yet caused his death.

“Here is a young man with the world before him. He’s academically bright, sportingly gifted and with the opportunity to go to Oxford University. Cruelly, as he is released from the tyranny of examinations, all of that is cut short.”

He said it would be “pompous and inappropriate” for him to criticise Sam for drinking to celebrate the end of his exams.